Twenty is the all-time record for free agents to get a qualifying offer, easily breaking the old record of 13.

Players can accept or decline the one-year, $15.8 million contract to return to their original team. If they decline and sign elsewhere, their original team receives draft pick compensation and their new team forfeits a draft pick.

During the first three years of the qualifying offer system zero free agents accepted, but there are at least a handful of potential takers this time around led by mid-level free agents like Marco Estrada, Colby Rasmus, John Lackey, Brett Anderson, and Ian Kennedy.